Pastry Panic Brings Frantic, Delicious Fun
Pastry Panic ($0.99) by Underground Pixel is full of pastries and frantic fun. You’’re’ll play as a dinosaur that loves to eat sweets — and pretty much anything else that is in front of it.
In a way, this game reminds me a little bit of Vlambeer's Super Crate Box, which I reviewed back when it came out. Except, you know, minus the crates, enemies, and random weapons. I think the main reason I'm reminded of SCB is because Pastry Panic also features a "Pastries Collected Worldwide" number on the main title screen, just like how SCB has the "Crates Collected Worldwide" number too.
Pastry Panic features retro 16-bit graphics and a fun chiptune soundtrack to go along with it. If you grew up in the Sega Genesis days, then this will definitely make you feel right at home. I found the visuals to look great and the animations were smooth and fluid, just as I'd expect from a game of this nature.
Once you start playing, you can view an optional tutorial that will explain the basics of the game. There are two game modes in Pastry Panic: Mad Dash and Tongue Tied, and both have their own separate control scheme. However, both modes start out slowly, but increasingly pick up in speed until it’s a frenzied madhouse of sweets and metal!
Mad Dash is the “normal” mode for the game. Our adorable blue dinosaur creature will be standing on one of three moving conveyor belts, and it’s your job to help him navigate through them to get to the tasty treats. You can move left and right by tapping (and holding) on the on the appropriate side, and jump between belts by swiping up and down. How do you collect pastries and anything else? Just run up to the snacks to eat them. Yep, even eating the bolts and metals won’t ruin this dino’s appetite.
Tongue Tied will have our hungry friend standing in the middle of the screen, unable to move. Two conveyor belts will appear above and below him, and you will only be able to get the snacks with an obnoxiously long tongue. Just tap on the pastries and bolts and the tongue will reach out and snatch them up.
Collecting the bolts and other metal pieces won’t earn you points (but you still need them), but pastries will give about five points per. When you get a certain amount of points, you will accumulate a coin. The coins can be used to purchase additional characters and outfits in the shop.
So why is eating the metal pieces so important? Each game will allot you with a certain amount of bolts that can “escape” before it is game over. You can see how many bolts you have available to spare in the top right corner. It’s important that you keep an eye on that — missing pastries won’t be a problem, but the metal sure will be.
Some pastries are power-ups and can speed up or slow down the game, reverse the direction of the conveyor belts, and more. I’ve only encountered a few so far, but I’m sure that there are more to find.
If you’re curious about new characters and outfits to unlock, you can access the shop from the main menu. I found that earning coins can be a slow process and require a lot of games to be played, but that’s part of the fun ,right? However, there is the ability to unlock all characters and costumes with a $0.99 in-app purchase.
Game Center is supported for leaderboards and achievements, so the replay levels are high.
If you're looking for a charming mascot, frantic fun, and a lot of sweets, then definitely check out Pastry Panic. It's another fun hit from Underground Pixel.
